Azarenka Beats Li to Win Australian Open

By

Gillian Tan

Updated Jan. 26, 2013 10:26 a.m. ET

MELBOURNE, Australia—Belarussian tennis player
Victoria Azarenka
on Saturday secured a second Grand Slam title and retained her No. 1 ranking by defeating China's
Li Na
4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in a drama-filled Australian Open final.

Photos

Azarenka won her second straight Australian Open title on Saturday. Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

The 23-year-old top seed, who won her first major tournament in Melbourne last year, burst into tears after she successfully defended her claim to the
Daphne Akhurst
Memorial Cup, becoming one of only eight women, including
Steffi Graf,
Martina Hingis
and
Serena Williams
,
who have done so.

Li, who also was chasing a second major title, found herself in early control of the first set, which alone included seven breaks of serve. Despite failing to close out the set at 5-3, China's most-accomplished tennis player clinched her fourth set-point opportunity on Azarenka's serve, courtesy of a double fault.

With Azarenka leading 3-1 in the second set, Li hurt her left ankle and fell as she reached for a backhand, requiring medical attention. The 30- year-old Li fought back to even the scores at 4-4. But Azarenka won eight of the next nine points and the set, as the sixth seed Li made six of her match total of 57 unforced errors.

At 2-1 in the decisive set, play was suspended for nine minutes for an Australia Day fireworks display. In the first point back, Li injured the same ankle and hit her head as she fell, silencing the
Rod Laver
Arena crowd, which wondered whether it would witness what would have been just the second retirement in a Grand Slam women's final since 1968.

"[For] two seconds, I couldn't really see anything. It was totally black," Li later explained. She added that the outcome of the match could have been different had she not fallen twice, but otherwise refused to dwell on the past.

Though play resumed, and Li continued to amass winners—she made 36 during the match, double Azarenka's 18—it was the latter who raced to match point, sealing it as a forehand from Li sailed past the base line.

"In these kind of matches you always have to take the opportunity of the important moments," said Azarenka. She added that she had expected a poor reception from the crowd because of a controversially timed off-court medical timeout in her semifinal against 19-year-old American
Sloane Stephens,
which was miscommunicated as a panic attack, rather than a rib injury that impaired her breathing.

"I was expecting way worse, to be honest actually. What can you do? You just have to go out there and try to play tennis in the end of the day," she said.

Speaking about the spotlight and the expectations that attended her as defending champion, Azarenka said she enjoys pressure, and uses it to her advantage. "I take it as a positive, something that will push me forward to improve, to get better, and the outcome is out of my hands."

With the win, the Belarussian joined Serena Williams,
Venus Williams
,
Maria Sharapova
and
Svetlana Kuznetsova
as the only active players who have won two or more major tournaments.

Li, who turns 31 next month and will rise one place to No. 5 in the Women's Tennis Association rankings on Monday, joked that she felt like she was at the China Open, because of the number of Chinese flags and cheers, both in Mandarin and English at the arena. "I know I'm not young, but I still have to say [I'm] very looking forward to next year."

It was a case of déjà vu for the most successful tennis player to have ever represented the world's most populous nation. In 2011, Li secured the first set at the Australian Open final, but proceeded to lose to
Kim Clijsters
6-3, 3-6, 3-6. Four months after that loss, she captured her first major, the French Open.

"I wish I can [do] the same this year, as well," she smiled, before reminding the press that French Open's winners in 2008 and 2012—
Ana Ivanovic
and Sharapova—bounced back from finishing as runners-up at the Australian Open that year to win the coveted title in Paris.

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